Just Another Pit Stop
by Rocksalt Rifle
Summary: Somewhere in Tennessee, the Winchesters pull off to get some gas.


Dean was handing Sam the twenty to pay for the gas when the small blur came out of nowhere, plucked the bill from his hand and sped off down the street before either of them could react. Sam swiveled on his heels, staring off down the street as if contemplating chasing the already-vanished thief, while Dean looked in disbelief at his now-empty hand.

"Did I just get mugged by a koala?"

"I-" Sam shook his head in disbelief. "I'm not sure what the hell that thing was."

"I just got mugged. By a koala."

"We don't have koalas in the US," Sam said, as if Dean needed to be reminded. "Or at least, wild ones."

Dean looked around suspiciously, as if the mysterious thief was going to reappear, and pulled the money clip out of his pocket again to hand off another twenty to Sam. This time, the entire money clip vanished from his hand as the thing leaped off the roof of the Impala, snagged it, and proceeded to scale the gas pumps to the overhang that sheltered cars from inclement weather.

"You _did_ just got mugged by a koala," Sam said, more amused than horrified, as Dean kicked the pillar beside the gas pump in a blind rage. He watched Dean throw his fit for a moment, then craned his neck to see if he could identify the creature that was taking all of his older brother's cash. It had climbed quickly out of sight. Sam sighed, determined it to be a lost cause, and turned back to Dean. "How much did you have, anyway?"

"It shouldn't matter, because I shouldn't have to worry about being mugged by fucking wild animals!" Dean yelled, giving the pillar one final kick in disgust.

"Bad words," came from above them, and Sam looked up in time to see the koala pull its head back in.

Dean stared up with Sam, disbelief fighting with anger on his face. "Did the koala just _talk_?"

"I think that koala was blue," Sam said in a strained tone.

Dean looked at Sam, and Sam looked right back at him. Without a word they both got into the Impala, slamming the doors as they did so. Dean turned to Sam, opened his mouth and before he could speak something hit the roof of the Impala between them hard enough to dent in the roof of the vehicle. Sam could see logic switch off behind Dean's eyes. "Oh, that's IT."

Before he could open the door, the koala stuck its head down from the roof and stared at Dean upside down, his large ears stuck out at curious angles. Dean made a strangled noise and Sam just stared at it. "That's not a koala."

"I don't care WHAT the fuck it is, I'm going to end its miserable EXISTENCE," Dean said.

It cocked its head the other way and quite plainly said "bad words."

Dean made a noise that sounded like crunched gravel and tried to open the door. The creature skittered off, leaping back onto the pillar and climbing just out of Dean's reached, making a host of clicking, hissing sounds. "Get back down here," Dean shouted, making a frustrated grab for it. He lucked out and grabbed a hind leg, and it turne around and sank an impossible mouth full of teeth into Dean's hand.

Sam was getting out of the car as Dean let forth full blast with an incomprehensible string of vulgarity. Dean turned and slammed the thing into the hood of the Impala, trying to shake its grip on his hand. Sam leaped around the front of the car and grabbed the thing bodily, trying to pry it off of Dean and not succeeding in the slightest. "OW OW OW DAMMIT!"

After a brief struggle it finally let Dean go to nurse his now bloodied right hand. Sam held the thing but it didn't struggle much, just hanging in his hands. "Bad words," it intoned wisely and Sam shook his head once, holding it at arms length to get a good look at it. "What ARE you?"

"Stitch!"

A young woman about nineteen or twenty came running around the side of the station, followed quickly by a girl who couldn't have been older than ten. "I told you he had to stay on a leash!" The young woman said as the girl beelined for Sam.

"This is ... yours?" Sam held the creature out and he went willingly to the young girl.

"Yes, he's my dog," she said, eying Sam warily and then rubbing the thing's head between its ears. It circled around her and stood back up on its rear legs, letting her lead it off. "Sorry if he was any trouble," she called, heading back the way they came.

"I'm so, so sorry," the young women said to Dean. "Did he bite you? He's not normally that ... uh, aggressive. Normally."

"Nani!" The girl called from the sidewalk. "Stitch is eating the upholstery again, I think he's hungry."

The young woman excused herself and ran back the way she had come as well.

"I hope I don't get some weird form of crypto-rabies or something," Dean said, looking at his hand and shaking it off.

"If that was a dog, I'll eat my hat," Sam said.

"Yeah, yeah," Dean said. "Can you go get the gas? I'm kinda short on cash now."


End file.
